Jose Quintana was the right man for the job last night, allowing just one run on six hits with eight strikeouts for his fourth win of the season as the Sox snapped their five-game losing streak with a 4-2 victory over the Orioles…Gordon Beckham hit a first-inning solo homer, his seventh, and Conor Gillaspie (single and double), Alexei Ramirez (single and double) and Alejandro De Aza all collected a pair of hits while De Aza also drove in two runs. Ramirez also was responsible for one of the key plays of the game, making one of his patented slides to avoid the tag at home to score the Sox’ fourth run. Take a look at the play (via both video and photo) along with Beckham’s blast:

Jose Abreu leads the American League in slugging percentage (.607), home run ratio (1st, 11.45), RBI ratio (1st, 4.20) and ranks among the leaders in homers (3rd, 22), RBI (T3rd, 60), extra-base hits (T3rd, 39) and OPS (6th, .928). Jose also owns a nine-game hitting streak, batting .351 with three home runs and nine RBI during that span.

Eaton on a Tear

Adam Eaton has reached base safely in 19 consecutive games and has hit safely in a career-high 11 straight games, the second-longest active streak in the AL behind the Tigers’ J.D. Martinez (13). Eaton is hitting .372 with two doubles, two triples, seven walks, six runs scored and a .460 on-base percentage during the streak to raise his season average 22 points to .273.

Double Duty Classic

This afternoon at U.S. Cellular Field, elite inner-city high school baseball players from across the country participated in the Double Duty Classic with the players dressed in uniforms honoring the Negro Leagues’ East-West All-Stars (see photo below). There was also a special forum hosted by ESPN and MLB analyst and former Sox outfielder and broadcaster Chris Singleton.

The sixth annual event is named after the legendary Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe, a star with the Chicago American Giants of the Negro Leagues who lived to the age of 103. Of the six East-West All-Star Games in which he played, “Double Duty” pitched in three and was a catcher in the other three–thus the nickname which was given to him by famed writer Damon Runyon.

Radcliffe frequently attended games at U.S. Cellular Field and on occasion visited the Sox clubhouse. In the years leading up to his death, he made a tradition of tossing out the ceremonial first pitch on his July 7 birthday.

Winner Take All

The University of Virginia evened the best-of-three College World Series championship final at one game apiece last night vs. former White Sox Amateur City Elite (ACE) standout Ro Coleman and his Vanderbilt teammates. The two clubs go at it tonight (7:00 p.m., CT, ESPN) in Omaha to determine the 2014 CWS champion.

Quote of the Day

As we wrote in yesterday’s post, Micah Johnson was named to the U.S. team in the Futures Game to be played at Target Field in Minneapolis on the Sunday before the Tuesday, July 15 MLB All-Star Game. Here’s Micah’s reaction to being chosen:

Glory to God. blessed with more influences than 140 characters allow me to mention. Crazy to be picked to rep @whitesox in the Futures Game

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